Internal combustion engines have a combustion chamber in the cylinder of the block below the head and above the piston. The fuel mixture is valved into the chamber and ignited directly in the chamber by the spark plug. Only a portion of the fuel and additives are completely burned and this leaves carbon monoxides and portions of partially burned and unburned fuel and additives. This mixture of burned, partially burned, and unburned fuel and additives is exhausted from the engine. Two major results ensue: A, there is a loss of fuel and power; and B, there is pollution of the atmosphere.
The engine manufacturers provide for the excess of partially burned and unburned fuel in the design of the engine to cool the combustion chamber and spark plug to avoid carbonizing temperatures. The manufacturers then resort to compensating devices which aggravate the problem instead of solving it, such as after-burners, charcoal and other type reactors, scrubbers, filters, separators, etc. The engine manufacturers thus do not attempt to solve the problem directly by reducing the quantities of partially burned and unburned fuel and additives and the monoxides relative to pollution nor do they make any direct efforts toward conserving fuel by using less fuel and by burning substantially all the fuel used.